June 30, 2015

The photo above shows Dr Charles Campbell standing on his Municipal Bat Roost in Texas, 1914. Not everyone is aware that bats love eating insects, and over the course of history they have proved to be an effective way of controlling mosquito populations. Campbell constructed the roost in 1914 at a time when malaria was a major health problem.

In fact some micro bats are able to eat as many as 300 insects in a single hour. They do this through a foraging strategy called aerial hawking, in which bats target insects through echolocation, a biological sonar that uses echoes to locate prey.

This process provides us with a vital ecological service. As we look to reduce the amount of pesticides in farming methods, bats can play a significant role clearing the air of insects that attack organic crops.

And it’s not just pest-control! Bats are effective seed dispersers and there are over 500 species of plants across the globe that rely on bats as pollinators – including mangos, bananas and cocoa. Bats also rely on the fruit of the plants to survive, so the providing homes and protection for our bats is crucial in allowing this balanced ecological relationship to continue. With this in mind we designed our Habi-Sabi Bat Box, a rapidly deployable habitat for bats that has both warm and cool chambers that allows them to regulate their temperature.